The Poetical Works of George Barlow :: :: University of Virginia Library

Then the next day in the chapel, lovely summer still without,
How I preached, with what an unction! Not one single shadow of doubt
Crossed the preacher's mind that morning—all he said, to him was true;
So his passion reached the people and it held them spellbound too.

175

I had preached to them of Jesus, I had told them of his grace;
I had drawn them moving pictures of the Saviour's grief-lined face;
I had preached to them of heaven—I had pictured to my fold
Heavenly doorways bright with jewels, heavenly mansions wrought of gold.

I had told them that the Saviour is not dead—that still he stands
With the infinite same pity in his heart and outstretched hands:
That the Father's heart is changeless; that to every soul who wills
Jesus speaks his Father's message, by our Cornish rocks and hills.

“Is there one heart in this chapel full of sadness?” so I had said;
“Let him grasp the fact eternal that the Saviour is not dead:
He is living yet to pity, he is living to redeem—
All of real life is the Christian's, all the world's life is a dream.

176

“As he spake to his disciples by the Galilean sea
So he speaks to-day in Cornwall, so he speaks to you and me:
He is near us, he is with us, and he sees with pitying glance
Every suffering soul in Newlyn, every sorrow in Penzance.

“Though your boats upon the Atlantic, not on any inland lake,
Bury deep their bows in winter when the thundering great waves break,
Tremble not, for he is near you—aye, the tiller is in his hand,
And it has not lost its cunning—he can steer your boat to land.

“Jesus dreads not all the Atlantic; he is just as much at home
On your vessels, when you are blinded with the scudding sleet and foam,
As on boats of humbler fashion on a sea of humbler waves
When he succoured other sailors. Still he watches, still he saves.

“Not the sea alone he conquers, all of Nature he can rule:
By his grace the water-lily buoys its white cup on the pool.
Nature is but as his servant, and beyond the sights we see
There are sights more glorious waiting, waiting in eternity.

177

“Past the blue waves of the ocean there are bluer waves than ours,
And the roses at your windows tell of heavenly fairer flowers:
For each passion that we conquer, for each joy that we disdain,
There are heavenly high gifts waiting, when our Master comes to reign.

“Comes to reign, for he will surely from the highest heaven descend
And all human sins and sorrows, aye the world's whole life, shall end:
There are many—I believe it—even now living who will see
Jesus coming in his glory, in his power and majesty.

“Oh, the flowers of earth are nothing! oh, the loves of earth are nought!
Oh, the joys of earth are trifles, hardly worth a passing thought!
Earthly flowers may dread the winter, mortal sunshine yield to night,
I proclaim the life immortal where the Lord God is the light.”

178

—But that day I preached of Nature, for the spirit of Nature seized
All my soul and chained and held me, and compelled me as she pleased:
I was thinking of the sunlight on the sea the day before—
How it glittered on the ocean, how it gleamed along the shore.

“Heaven is close, aye all around you!” so I cried to them that day;
“It is in the golden sunlight as it flashes on the bay:
Even the highest heaven is sunless when God sends, some summer morn,
All the sunlight he can gather to assist your fields of corn.

“Moonless, starless are the heavens, lampless is God's house on high
Sometimes, when the lamps immortal gleam across a mortal sky,—
And the angels seem less stately, and their gold robes seem less fair,
When the glory of God's sunlight glitters through a woman's hair.

179

“Woman was not made to tempt us! Was not Christ, the God-child, born
Of the pure womb of a Virgin? Did the world's Creator scorn
Even the lowly flesh of woman? Was it not the great God's plan
Through the stainless heart of Mary to redeem the race of man?

“Sacred evermore is woman, sacred is this world of ours,
For the fingers of its Maker now have plucked its humble flowers:
Sacred are its fields and valleys, and its mountain-heights sublime,
For eternity has sought us, and has kissed the lips of time.

“Now the heart of God that revelled through the years that baffle thought
Far in heaven 'mid heavenly splendour loves the flowers his earth has brought,
And a fairer light than heavenly is in sunlit Cornish skies.”
Then I stepped down from the pulpit—and my eyes met Annie's eyes.